Players in the fastest-growing sport in the country are running out of places to play. The number of pickleball players jumped more than 45% from 2023 to 2024, but the number of courts has not kept up with the demand.
At the Soto Sports Complex in Arroyo Grande, pickleball players fill the parking lot and play through the morning almost every day of the week. With only 16 players on the 4 courts at a time, Cheri Dematteo said she can wait up to 20 minutes for their turn.
“We're playing, and we've got 40 people out here and sitting for 10, 15, 20 minutes and then not being able to play," Dematteo said. "So, Arroyo Grande and Grover [Beach] need to get- we got Mentone [park], but we need more.”
Although pickleball and tennis courts share some similarities, they are different in many ways, specifically in size. The area of a tennis court is about three times larger than that of a pickleball.
Brandon Sedgwick, a local tennis player, said it's not uncommon for pickleball players to take open tennis courts if there's no one using them.
"They'll sometimes use the courts, but if no one else is there," Sedgwick said. "There's very little times I've actually seen these courts full [of tennis players].”
Several of the same pickleball players who were on the court Sunday packed into an Arroyo Grande city council meeting in September to advocate for more space. They proposed to create pickleball outlines inside two of the four existing tennis courts at the complex, allowing people from both sports to use the space.
After a lengthy debate, the city council decided not to move forward with the proposal, instead requesting survey data and more community input.
Mayor Caren Ray Russom expressed her concerns at the meeting.
“I want you to know, especially the pickleball players, I’m hearing you," Russom said. "I hear you, you want more space. But I also hear the tennis people, too. I don’t want to make a short-term decision without having as much information as I’d like to have.”
I reached out on Sunday to the director of recreation services for an update on this issue, but she was not available for an interview or to issue a statement.
One reason Pickleball has taken off in popularity, and doesn't seem to be trickling off, is that the rules of the game are easy to learn, and people of any age can play. Mary Neal is decades older than the other players. She's also a fierce advocate of finding more places to play.
“When I came out on the court, what I remember about her was she said you could be my daughter," Dematteo said. "She's an excellent player. She's she's what we all want to be when we grow up. She's awesome.”
Neal is 91 years old, but she said she doesn’t feel like your average nonagenarian.
“I work out four days a week, and I've done that for like 30 years," Neal said. "I think that's what's kept me, you know, my whole body strong and everything.”
Neal started playing at the Arroyo Grande courts in 2021 and said, although more courts are needed, she understands the restraints.
“Here we're trying for more courts, but everybody has a budget problems, so we're bugging them," Neal said. "But we'll see what happens.”
Until the city can come up with a plan, the courts will stay just as they are. Sedgwick said for now, tennis and pickleball players will continue working together to make sure everyone gets a shot at playing.
